Machete - Blu-Ray

Movie: It was while preparing his second feature Desperado that director Robert Rodriguez came up with the idea for a bona fide Latino hero, which he was then able to finally bring to life during his grindhouse effort Planet Terror, at least in the form of a fake trailer: Machete was born! Since the shooting of the short film had given Rodriguez a lot of joy and he saw in Danny Trejo the perfect action hero, and since the desire of the fans for the real implementation of the fictional film grew louder, Rodriguez has now given the avenger with the machete his own feature film. The result is great trash cinema at its finest, blending violence and sex into an immensely entertaining whole.

Once upon a time, Machete (Danny Trejo) was the best cop in the Mexican Federal Police. But after drug lord Torrez (Steven Seagal) has his entire family murdered, there's no real purpose in life for Machete anymore. He goes into hiding in Texas, but fails to shake off his past here. For when he is offered big money to shoot the racist Senator McLaughlin (Robert de Niro) by businessman Booth (Jeff Fahey), who thinks Machete is a simple illegal immigrant, the ex-cop quickly finds himself in a quagmire of corruption, murder and deceit in which Torrez also seems to be involved. With the help of the revolutionary Luz (Michelle Rodriguez) and the ambitious immigration officer Sartana (Jessica Alba), Machete wants to put a stop to Torrez once and for all. But he has a few aces up his sleeve...

If you take a movie like Machete seriously, you can't be helped. Rodriguez has staged the whole thing so obviously overdone and intentionally trashy that it's just a sheer joy. One example is the scene in which Machete seduces the wife and daughter of his arch-enemy together. Here, Rodriguez reveals all too obviously that he used a body double instead of Lindsay Lohan, which makes the already amusing scene even funnier. Or the very beginning, when Machete storms a house to rescue a stark naked lady who has chosen a very unusual place to store her cell phone. Wonderfully cliché-laden dialogue, completely over-the-top depictions of violence, and absolutely bizarre conceits (Machete's visit to his spiritual brother, for instance, is full of such conceits) make this film a ton of fun from the first minute to the last.

While Rodriguez does run out of steam a bit at the end, and the lead-laden finale feels a bit overstuffed. But the journey to get there is so entertaining that this weakness can be safely overlooked. The most positive effect of the movie, however, is that character face Danny Trejo finally gets to show that he can definitely carry a movie as a cool action hero. Even though he is supported by a cast that couldn't be more different with Robert de Niro and Steven Seagal and with Don Johnson, Cheech Marin, Michelle Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Alba and Jeff Fahey on the one hand offers pure nostalgia, on the other hand also plenty of fodder for the eye, the film would be only half as worth seeing without Trejo as Machete.

Who appreciates trash cinema on a high level and likes to go on paths beyond all political correctness, will be rewarded with action, blood, sex, a great soundtrack and a lot of good-humored actors in Machete. If you liked the fake trailer for the film and found Planet Terror entertaining, don't miss this explosive vendetta. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The picture has the deliberately trashy look of a grindhouse film only at the beginning. The deliberate smudges quickly disappear, leaving the picture, shot in high definition, with a neat sheen. While the whole thing isn't always razor sharp and even the contrasts seem a little blurry here and there, it can be assumed that this is part of the film's very special look and isn't a real weakness in the conversion for home cinema. Because the sound proves that this in itself is absolutely successful. Crashing surround effects, a great mixed soundtrack and well used ambient sounds make the sound of the film not only in the action sequences a real treat!

Extras: Here the Blu-Ray - just like the DVD - reveals its great weakness. The only real extra is eleven minutes of cut scenes. Sure, it's quite interesting to see that there was a subplot involving Sartana's twin sister, also played by Jessica Alba, that completely fell victim to the shears. But really worth seeing are the additional scenes only conditionally.

A soundtrack with audience reactions, recorded during a cinema performance of Machete, is quite amusing, but this real cinema atmosphere wears off relatively quickly. A few trailers then already close the meagre bonus offer. Clearly too little!

Conclusion: Machete is a bloody action fun of the particularly trashy kind. An extremely cool main character and many supporting actors worth seeing make this grindhouse homage worth watching even in the rather weak moments. The Blu-Ray is technically very well implemented, but disappoints with the meager bonus material. Nevertheless: all fans of Robert Rodriguez and Danny Trejo should not miss this B-movie highlight

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp